a Worshipper of God and a doer of Righteousness without the belief of them But from the firm persuasion of these things there ariseth a full obligation to do all those things whereby God is pleased But alas such is the degeneracy of Mankind our propensity to wickedness the Temptations of the World c. that if we believe no other motives besides these in order to Religion and Virtue it is very unlikely that they should have their effects upon us We know we are Sinners and should we be ready to justify our continuance in Sin by pretending that we know not whether God would pardon us upon our repentance We know our best Actions are imperfect and we should be ready to question whether God would accept what we could do and make that a pretence of neglecting to do what we might We know our own Frailties and the difficulties of Religion and Virtue and should in all likelihood deliver our selves from all care of pleasing God under colour of the impossibility of performing it by Humane Endeavours We know the enjoyments of pleasures and profits of Sin are present to us and we should be apt to question Whether it would be any thing better if we should forego them when the conscience of our duty required it It hath pleased therefore the All-wise and all-All-good God out of his tender Mercy and Compassion to Sinners to remove all these hindrances and by Revelation to supply all these defects and satisfy us concerning all these doubts viz. by adding to the Principles of Natural Religion these following Motives and Inducements to Godliness and Virtue 1. That God will pardon the sins of all those that repent 2. That he will accept our sincere endeavours to please him 3. That by his Spirit he will assist us in them And 4. That he will at last reward us for them All which are the Doctrines of revealed Religion and make up the entire foundation of Faith having all their dependance upon Faith in Christ The Third Sermon HEB. XI 6. But without faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him I Come in the second place to shew what Doctrines of Revealed Religion are fundamental to Godliness and Virtue those are such which are immediately necessary to be believed in order to the removing or subverting of those Doubts which would hinder men from the care of Piety and Virtue notwithstanding their belief of the natural Principles of Religion If we suppose a man to believe a God a Providence and the difference between good and evil we must needs conclude this man lies under a very powerful obligation to the practice of Worship and Virtue and if the efficacy of these Motives be not subverted by other Principles destructive of all care to please God it may be expected that the man who believeth thus much should indeed be a Worshipper of God and a Practiser of Virtue But if it be most true that men are through the sad degeneracy and corruption of their Natures extreamly averse from that which is good and prone to that which is evil even all Mankind more or less and consequently that they are very ready to lay hold upon all pretences to excuse themselves the Service of God and obedience to his Will If it be true also that there are several Questions in Religion which unless they be satisfied the doubting of them will afford so many pretences to throw off all care to live vertuously and godly and that these Questions cannot be satisfied nor consequently the Doubts removed by the Principles of Natural Religion then it follows that those Principles though the belief of them be absolutely necessary yet by reason of the present evil state of Mankind are not sufficient to constrain them to the practice of Religion and Virtue but must be assisted and strengthned by such Principles of Revealed Religion the belief whereof will wholly remove all those Pretences which would be alledged in behalf of an ungodly vicious life It might be pretended by the natural man who believes that there is a God a Providence and that some things are pleasing and others displeasing to him That these are not sufficient Reasons why he should become religious and virtuous because knowing himself to be a Sinner he could not tell whether God would pardon the Sins he is guilty of without which it would signify little to his advantage to endeavour to please him for the future Clear it is by Natural light that God is a hater of Sin but whether he will pardon a Sinner depending meerly upon his Free-will the belief thereof must necessarily depend upon Revelation Almighty God hath by Revelation made known to us that he will pardon the Sins of men upon their repentance This therefore is the first Principle of Revealed Religion that is fundamental to Godliness and Virtue That God is ready to pardon the Sins of men upon their repentance But by the natural man i. e. one that believes there is a God it might further be alledged That though he were assured that God would forgive him all his past sins upon his return to obedience yet he is ignorant what degree of obedience it is with which God will be pleased for the future A perfect and unsinning Righteousness he knows no man is able to arrive unto in this state of imperfection and whether God will accept of our doing what we are able to do considering all our evil Circumstances we cannot know unless he is pleased to inform us that he will Almighty God hath therefore by Revelation made known to us that he will accept of the sincere endeavours of men in the practice of Religion and Virtue And so the second Principle of revealed Religion the belief whereof is fundamentally necessary to a good life is this That God is ready to accept of sincere obedience But considering the great Temptatations we are beset withal the natural aversation in us to good and propensity to evil the bad Examples of the World the power of Custom the prevelancy of Passions the frailties of Humane Nature It is further questionable whether Humane Endeavours can arrive at such a measure of Righteousness and Obedience which may justly be called sincerity in doing the whole Will of God and if that Righteousness be impossible to us in our present Circumstances without which God will not be pleased with us there is but little comfort in the belief that he will pardon us upon repentance and accept of our sincere endeavours of obedience there are but weak motives to those endeavours Almighty God therefore to encourage us against the fears of our own frailties and the temptatations of this World hath been pleased to reveal unto us that he will afford us the assistance of his Holy Spirit in a manner and measure proportionable to all the Difficulties of Religion and Virtue And so the
he lays down in the remaining part of the Text. 1. That this Righteousness proceeds from Faith The righteousness of God from faith to faith 2. That this principle of Righteousness was mentioned in the Old Testament As it is written the just shall live by faith And therefore we are first to enquire 1. What is the meaning of that Passage from faith to faith In what sense is the Righteousness which God requires said to be from faith to faith I answer that the meaning is this The Righteousness which pleaseth God is that which must begin from Faith which must still proceed from Faith and which at last must end in Faith For this is a saying like to that in Rom. 6.19 As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness For by serving iniquity unto iniquity is meant adding one sin to another and daily growing worse And by serving righteousness unto holiness is meant adding one degree of goodness to another and growing better And thus here the Righteousness which is from faith to faith is a Righteousness which first proceeds from Faith and is always built upon it afterwards and is at last perfected by it For that which the Apostle intimates by these words is That the Righteousness of a good Christian having Faith for the ground and reason of it does encrease as his Faith encreases and that the more he is rooted and strengthned in Faith the better he grows and he pleases God the more This seems to be the most natural interpretation of these words viz. That Faith is all along the Principle and Ground of that Righteousness which God expects and is pleased with But then 2. What relation hath that Passage out of the Old Testament to this matter As it is written the just shall live by faith I answer That the Apostle does hereby design to shew that though the Promises of the Gospel are incomparably more excellent than those that were made under the Law yet it was the belief of God's Promises then that held good men to the performance of their duty and intituled them to the favour of God The words are taken out of Habakk 2.4 God had promised the Jews that they should return from their Captivity in his appointed time v. 3. therefore says he though the vision tarry wait for it because it will surely come but the just shall live by his faith that is to say The sure belief of this Promise would support good men in the service of God under the Captivity in an Idolatrous Land and their Faith should be rewarded with a return into their own Country in God's appointed time In like manner Christians who have better promises viz. of an Heavenly Countrey do in this Faith work that Righteousness which the Gospel requires and for thus living by Faith in this World they shall live for ever in their Heavenly Countrey Faith was the foundation of the Jews observing their Law of outward Works and it was rewarded with such Blessings as that Law promised But the Gospel of Christ as we read in the foregoing Verse is the power of God unto salvation and therefore it is still true but in a much higher sense that the just shall live by faith because the Gospel requires an inward and spiritual Righteousness to which we are brought by the belief of promises of spiritual and eternal good things and because such Faith shall bring us to everlasting life Thus much for the Explication of the Text. And now my work shall be to enquire upon what ground it is that the Scriptures do attribute so much to Faith as they do and to shew that this is done without any disparagement at all to Godliness and Virtue And I have chosen this Argument to discourse upon that it may appear how unreasonably we of the Reformation are charged by our Adversaries as we often have been with Solifidianism as they call it that is with attributing all to Faith and leaving no necessity for Righteousness and good Works We do indeed with the Scriptures say That we are justified by faith and that the just do live by Faith but we do with the Scriptures also affirm Faith to be the principle of obedience and there is a righteousness from faith to faith without which we cannot please God nor be justified before him We do also renounce the merit of good Works and resolve the acceptance of them into the Grace and Mercy of God in not imputing our sins to us and when we have done all they are the gracious Promises of God and it is not the dignity of our own Righteousness that we rely upon but then we say it is the faith of these Promises that maketh us live to God by Repentance and good Works which are so necessary that we are dead without them Now from hence indeed it follows That where there is that faith which God requires holiness will follow For if we are justified by faith if he that believes shall be saved and yet without holiness no man shall see the Lord then they that believe are holy which if it be found true then we not to say the Scriptures are justified in attributing so much to Faith as we do that it is by Faith we please God that we live by Faith and that we are saved by Faith On the other hand it seems hard to understand how those great things should be spoken of Faith when there are many that do not hold faith and a good conscience but hold the truth in unrighteousness And since it follows more certainly That a man believes because he is holy than that he is holy because he believes it should rather have been said that a Believer shall live by his Righteousness than that the just shall live by faith and yet following the Scriptures we say that we live by faith and are justified by faith To clear this difficulty it will be requisite to consider well these two things 1. What the Nature of Faith is And 2. What power it has or what efficacy must necessarily be granted to it and when it hath that power and efficacy I shall not only aim at making the notions of these things clear but also profitable unto Godliness 1st then As to the Nature of Faith I do not see that the Scripture means any thing by Faith but a persuasion of the truth of something that is affirmed upon the Testimony of one that affirms it or upon some other reason besides sensible evidence or immediate knowledge And thus Divine Faith is a persuasion of the truth of those things which we have God's testimony for And that we are thus to understand these words Faith or believing in the Scriptures is very plain because otherwise the Scriptures must have altered the common sense and signification of words But can we think that when our Blessed Saviour required believing under the penalty of
or wishing and proposing to be better nor of external Penances fruitless Ceremonies vain Commutations purchasing Dispensations and buying Indulgencies not one or all of these put together is repentance Any man that hath his eyes in his head may plainly perceive that the Repentance to which pardon is promised in the Gospel is altogether as broad and as long as to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world So that God Almighty hath not issued out his pardon to any one Sinner in absolute and irrespective terms and then left it to his good nature whether he will thank him for it or no whether he will be kind and leave his sins or ungrateful and continue in them And they are very foolish who fancy themselves such Darlings of Heaven that for their sakes God had no respect to the holiness of his own Nature the honour of his Laws and the wisdom of his Government in determining to pardon them and receive them into his grace and favour Now to prevent all such presumtion and fond conceit it is as plainly revealed to us in the Gospel that God will not lose his right to our obedience as that he will forbear to use his right to punish us and that he will forbear that no longer when he sees his goodness doth not lead us to repentance The same Divine Revelation which assureth us God is so good that he will pardon a Sinner doth likewise assure us he is so just and wise as to pardon him only upon his repentance And indeed to pardon the incorrigible is not mercy but weakness he only is in a compassionable condition that is sorry for his sins and sins no more Seeing then Repentance consisteth in the practice of Religion and Virtue and that is the indispensable condition of our pardon and that out Pardon is infallibly secure upon that Condition From the belief of all this there ariseth a most pregnant and forcible engagement to the greatest care we can exert of living in the love and fear of God and keeping his Commandments 2. The second Principle of Revealed Religion the belief whereof is necessary to excite us to the practice of Godliness and Virtue is this That God is ready to accept of sincere obedience This likewise is only to be known by Revelation seeing if God had pleased he might have left us to the rigour of that original Law of Righteousness which required unsinning duty and according to which no Sinner can be justified i.e. he might have measured our Repentance the Condition of our Pardon by our amendment according to the strictness of that Law without making any abatements for Human Frailty for invincible Ignorance for surprize and those unduenesses of passion and those inadvertencies which are things of daily incursion But had it been thus little comfort could we have had from the belief that God will pardon us upon our repentance and obedience for the future if he would accept of nothing for that repentance and obedience which was short of that absolute perfection which 'tis morally impossible for any man in this state of imperfection to arrive unto For he that proffers a benefit upon terms impossible to the Receiver does but disquiet him the more taking away with the one hand what he giveth with the other Therefore Almighty God further to encourage us to repentance and the practice of Religion and Virtue hath not only promised to pardon our former sins upon that condition but he hath so described to us in the Gospel what that life is which for the future he will accept and be pleased withal that we have no reason to be deterred from attempting his Service by any jealousies of his austerity and rigour towards us That which he requires of us is to love him with all our hearts from whence it follows That the service and duty he expects from us is no other than what is a natural emanation from and a real expression of such a love to him which is to do what we are able that we may serve him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life Now to love God with all our hearts i. e. to love him above all things is a very possible and the most reasonable thing in the World That obedience therefore must be so too which is the natural effect of such a love to God That obedience which is the effect of due love to God is consistent with sins of mere frailty of unaffected ignorance of unavoidable surprise because these sins neither proceed from an evil will nor are wholly vincible in our present state but that obedience which is the effect of due love to God cannot consist with deliberate much less with presumptuous sins It cannot consist with wilful much less with customary transgressions of known and open Laws it cannot consist with sins proceeding from affected ignorance much less with sins against knowledge which 't is in a man's power to avoid It cannot consist with these kind of sins because 't is clear that the reason why men commit them is not because they cannot but because they will not forbear them But he that loves God with all his heart will do what he can to please him and he that doth so is accepted by Almighty God i. e. he is reckon'd by him a righteous man and according to the moderation and gentleness of the Christian Law not accounted a Sinner in which sense we are to understand those words of the Apostle St. John He that is born of God sinneth not So that as for sins of infirmity which do indeed stand as much condemned and will as as certainly exclude us from the favour of God according to the terms of the Original Law or the first Covenant if God should deal with us by those measures for those sins I say they are consistent with the favour of God to us according to the terms of the Christian Law or the Second Covenant because we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous who is our High-Priest and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities through whose intercession they are remitted upon our keeping from all wilful sins and our endeavour after perfection But if we sin wilfully there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin i. e. the Sacrifice offered for us will not avail to make such sins consistent with a justifiable state No they must be actually repented of and forsaken 't is only upon those terms that our Sacrifice remaineth in force and power to obtain our reconciliation to God Here I confess I have just occasion to proceed upon a Discourse concerning the difference between sins of weakness and sins of wilfulness to shew as exactly as the case will bear wherein lies that sincerity of obedience which God is ready to accept and which he will be pleased with us for But this would be to slide into an Argument that belongs not to the general
necessary for the maintenance of Life as Bread c. In like manner by the holy Spirit which our heavenly Father is so ready to bestow upon his Children we must understand all Spiritual helps necessary for our improvement in Religion and Virtue viz. which hold the same proportion to the good of our Souls which Bread c. holds to the welfare of our Bodies this upon our asking i. e. upon our sincere endeavours after it we may promise our selves from the bounty of God to us since he hath promised it to us viz. such grace and spiritual help as shall be sufficient for us God will give to none of us less and he is unreasonable that expects more Now is not this evidently a strong Motive to Godliness and Virtue that God himself will cherish and maintain us will help and support us will prosper and guard us by the influences of his Holy Spirit upon us Have we such a Patron and Defender to overlook and care for us that we do not fall by our Spiritual Enemies for want of necessary help and yet can we be disheartned and dismay'd Can our Courage and Resolution leave us Can our hearts sink within us when such powerful Aids are near when such mighty encouragements are by us Is it not from hence plain that no man can fail of doing those things wherewith God will be pleased and his favour obtained but it must be through his own fault and slothfulness in not obtaining by his own endeavours or in not improving by his good Actions the graces of the holy Spirit wherewith he might have arrived to a Regenerate estate and persevered therein For God hath not made a feigned but a sincere promise of his Spirit to work and encrease his graces in us and if the promise be real it can imply no less and it needs not imply any more than a sufficient provision for our spiritual needs and if that provision be not effectual in the event no body is to be blamed for it but our selves The belief therefore of this Article of Revealed Religion That God is ready to assist by his holy Spirit our sincere endeavours to please him is a Motive of great force to persuade us to the practice of Religion and Virtue both because the Promise of God's Spirit made to us is sufficient to encourage us against all our fears of the difficulties of Religion and our own weakness to overcome them and likewise because it cannot but shew us what great aggravation our sins must receive if we continue in them because thereby we resist and do despight unto the spirit of grace 4. The last Principle of Revealed Religion fundamental to a holy Life is that which is mentioned in the Text viz. That God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him This point of belief is not knowable but by Divine Revelation because it depends on the will and pleasure of God whether he will reward our diligent seeking of him or no for if it were discoverable by natural reason as it is not that God would certainly pardon our Sins upon Repentance that he would accept of our sincere endeavours of obedience that he would by his Spirit assist our endeavours to please him If all this could be concluded from the general notion of Divine Goodness yet Natural Reason could not give us any other confidence about the effects of that pardon and our sincere endeavours to please God which are excited and assisted by the Holy Spirit I say the highest confidence we could arrive unto about the good effects of these things with regard to our selves could amount reasonably to no more than this That hereupon we should be exempted and released from that punishment which is due unto our sins For that God should pardon Sinners and that he should prescribe unto them such excellent and useful Laws as should tend to their advantage in this Life and which should recompence the obedience of them with a present reward and thereupon should remit the penalty due to sin this must needs argue as great goodness in God as any Sinner could with reason or modesty expect the manifestation of towards himself but that he should over and above requite our imperfect if sincere obedience with free and ample rewards in the Life to come that those rewards should be the highest and fullest which our natures are capable of that the continuance of them should be as long as our Beings that they should be no less than immortal glory and happiness than an Eternal Crown of Righteousness than Life Everlasting than the Society and Fellowship of Angels than the glorious and happy imployments of Spirits made perfect than the sight and fruition of God for ever this is such abundant benignity and good-will towards Sinners that it can flow from nothing but self-moving goodness free grace and unsought kindness and benevolence This could never be known by us but by God Almighty's Revelation of his purpose and intention so to do if we would labour to please him in all things This with modesty could never be expected by us if the declared Promise of God thus to deal with us had not given us confidence to believe it and made it our Duty so to do That we might therefore want no motive and encouragement to the practice of Religion and Virtue He who by his Son Jesus Christ calleth us to repentance promising pardon thereupon and acceptance and assistance hath moreover by the same Messenger who hath declared to us the things of God his secret and hidden purposes of Mercy and Goodness towards Sinners by him I say he hath assured us that the righteous shall go into life eternal into a state of immortal glory and happiness reserved for them in the Heavens This also after all the rest is a pregnant and strong motive to the practice of Religion and Virtue since as the rest shew the possibility thereof so this satisfieth us of the great advantage that will accrue to us thereby since God himself will be our rewarder if we diligently seek him If indeed we had no reason to believe that it would make for our advantage to accept of God's pardon and to study to please him in all things for the future the present Pleasures and Profits of Sin would captivate the minds of men and leave us less reason to wonder at the wickedness of the World but since the Bountiful and Righteous God hath bid an everlasting immense reward for our poor and to him unprofitable but to our selves most beneficial Services what can be said in our excuse if we undervalue so magnificent and free a Gift such rich Grace and Bounty If this cannot prevail with us to do those things which are so reasonable in themselves that a truly good man finds there is little need of any other temptation to do them what shame will it be to us if we prefer a Moment before Eternity and those Advantages we see but which we
them could be well spared but that they work together one for one good end another for another all jointly for his true happiness And if this be true with reference to single persons it must needs be so with respect to the Church or to any Body of Christians adhering to the true faith and obedience of the Gospel since the Providence of God is more watchful for a common than a particular Interest and since this truth was mentioned by the Apostle in behalf of Believers that felt the same troubles So that we are as to all Evils of this World to consider God not as arbitrarily disposing of our Concerns but rather as wisely chusing fit means for our happiness And this consideration will serve to repel all murmuring thoughts against his Providence and to dispose us not only to contentation but even to thankfulness under the Adversities of life and that because it seems they are so far from being ill meant by Providence towards us that they are chosen by God as proper means working for our good not only Adversities in general but those which happen in particular more than others would have done But then 2. There must be a concurrence of other causes to make them effectual for our good I cannot certainly tell whether that be meant by that phrase of working together for I do not know but the Apostle might mean no more in this place than that all things that happen to God's Servants shall work together that is one with another promote that which is best for them in the end But I am sure the thing is true that other causes must be present to work together with these and because the Apostle knew that they would be supposed therefore they are fit to be mentioned And 1. The Grace of God which is necessary to all good effects which his Providence designs to work in and for us that will not be wanting For if any thing that is grievous befals us by his Providence he will not deny us that inward assistance of his Holy Spirit towards a good use of it which is needful because the outward means of doing us good is not of our own chusing but his And this is one reasonable account of that saying of David In very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me For God hath promised to be good and gracious to him And this Promise was so made good by those Troubles that befel him and the supports he had under them and by that Grace of God which disposed him to make a good use of them that he could not but acknowledge the Truth and Fidelity of God upon this account as much as for all the Glories and Prosperities that ever fell to his share But then 2. Something is required of us to convert all Evils that do or may befal us into such advantages as may be made of them They indeed give us the opportunity and God give us the ability but then we must perform our duty They work as Occasions and Means God works as the Supream Director and Mover but it is our part to work as the immediate Instruments of our own good and that by more Consideration and more earnest Prayer and herein lies the tendency of Worldly Crosses to do us good that they do of themselves dispose a good man to those things more than ordinarily And it is in this sense that we are to understand the saying of the Wise-man Sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better That is to say 1. It is disposed to consider more seriously for it takes away all that levity and ariness of thought which in some degree does almost necessarily attend an unmixed prosperity and it does also suggest many profitable thoughts which seldom come to our minds at another time This very Divine Truth That all things work together c. is not so often thought of when we need not the support of it as when we do nor the Infinite Wisdom and Goodness of the Divine Providence nor the rich Promise of being raised up to everlasting Life There must be the consideration of such things to make all things work for our good otherwise this Text were set here in vain nor need we to have known the truth it holds forth to us if without laying it and other things of the same nature to heart they would work good for us by themselves 2. Fervent Prayers are requisite for the same end for otherwise the Apostle needed not have told us in the foregoing Verse Likewise also the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groans that cannot be uttered In which words as I have already intimated the Apostle encouraged his Christians to earnest Prayer assuring them That in their Circumstances the Holy Spirit of God would guide them to pray for things that were good for them though in all their Prayers for temporal things to submit their Desires intirely to the Will and good disposal of the Almighty who would accordingly answer them by doing what was best for them Now frequent and earnest Prayer does wonderfully dispose the mind of a good man to a strong dependance upon God and brings back great Consolations and Strength from him and confirms it in a stedfast and unmoveable resolution of keeping a good Conscience and looking for that Mercy of God unto Eternal Life It is by such Actions of our own that all things work together for good and all Evils of life do themselves work for it by disposing us to these things i.e. to Consideration and Devotion to consider the Soveraignty Wisdom and Goodness of God the Vanity of this World our infinite concerns in a better life more seriously and closely than we have done and to pray to God for all needful things more affectionately and heartily Now where such Dispositions as these are followed there all the good fruits of worldly Evils will grow plentifully which what they are comes next to be considered in the mean time we have gone thus far That there is nothing wanting in them as they are occasions and opportunities of doing good for our selves and that through the Grace of God and our own using them aright and cherishing those good inclinations and dispositions which they beget in our minds they will actually produce the good ends for which they are sent 3. Let us now consider what that good is for which it is said that all things shall work together what kind of good it is and what is the degree of it If we consider the kind it may be truly said in the first place that sometimes it is of the same kind with the evil and that God sends the temporal evil to bring about a temporal good Thus Joseph who was designed by Providence to be so great a Man in Egypt when it was to be the Granary of that part of
wisdom If the inward man be renewed day by day we are well recompenced though the outward man decays faster 2. God does sometimes send evil to prevent our falling into sin and then we cannot be so sensible what we gain by it because we were not aware of that danger we were running into if God had not applied a timely prevention who consults our safety not always by staying till a sudden remedy is needful but by keeping off an approaching mischief which he forsees whilst we have no apprehension of it And certainly those things work for our good which keep us from backsliding and growing worse Upon these two accounts the benefit is as real though not so sensible as the sharpness of the means and so we may rest without the trouble of any objection upon the truth of God's word That upon our prayer and submission no ill ever has or shall befal us in this World without redounding to a greater good I have thus spoken concerning the universality of the expression all things concerning the manner whereby good is produced by them and what is the kind and degree of that good for which they work together I proceed 4. To consider the qualification requir'd for the receiving of the benefit They shall work together for good to them that love God i. e. to all righteous and godly persons who are said in the very next words to be called according to purpose that is who answer their call to Christianity by a stedfast purpose of Heart to live according to it and if need be to dye for it Now when 't is said that all things shall work together for the good of such the meaning is not that no evil shall work for the good of any other For the Chastisements of this Life may bring a wicked man to repentance but it is more certain abundantly that they work for good to the righteous inasmuch as they desire to be made more conformable to the Image of God they do already value the riches of the mind above outward advantages they are already disposed to receive all good instruction and upon all vicissitudes to turn themselves to God by Prayers and Thanksgivings they have already lived by Faith and are therefore prepared to seek Consolations from his Word more diligently when any pressing need requires to them it is less hard to obey in suffering having been already accustomed to do the Will of God they have had experience of his goodness and do love him above all things and therefore are always disposed to take every thing in good part from him believing in his Wisdom and Goodness Finally they have a Title to the special Grace and Favour of God already and therefore cannot fail of more abundant supplies upon all needful occasions Upon all these accounts which it is sufficient but just to mention it is evident that a sincere Lover of God hath so many advantages towards making the best use of all accidents of Life that we may be assured they will work together for his good Which brings me to the last Point and that not of the least consideration viz. 5. That we know they will thus work for this is the Comfort which brings all the rest home to us that we are well assured thus it will be If when the evil were present the remedy were absent it were no remedy to us and it would be absent from us if we were ignorant of it As for the evils of this Life in general we know it is a vain thing to expect a total exemption from them it was therefore necessary for the relief of our minds to know likewise that they shall work for good to us As for those in particular which we are naturally most afraid of we know not certainly whether they will all befall us or not but under this uncertainty we are again relieved by knowing that if they do they shall turn to our benefit But how do we know it We know it many ways 1. From the goodness of God who does not delight in the grief of any of his Creatures much less of those that love him He would not therefore send affliction were it not to be converted into a means of greater good The troubles and pains of this Life are in themselves evil and therefore all that they can be good for is to be a means of some good or other for they can never become good in themselves and for their own sakes and therefore God would not inflict them if they were not good in their consequences 2. We know it farther because we are sure our Lord Jesus has made a compleat satisfaction to the Justice of God for the Sins of those that are truly penitent so compleat that upon the account of satisfying God's Justice they are neither liable to Temporal nor Eternal Punishments But yet God sometimes punishes good men in this World he often visits them with affliction since therefore his Justice is already satisfied it must be resolved into his Wise Mercy and Kindness towards them that he visits them with his Rod and suffers them not to go without some Chastisements 3. We know it because good men are so disposed that it is almost natural for them to reap great advantages by all the Changes and Chances of this Life it is no more than what the state of their minds and the course of their Actions has promised all along as we observed before But 4 Above all we know it because God hath said it he hath said it and therefore to be sure he will do all that is requisite on his part to make it good he hath said it in this very place and in innumerable places of holy Scripture as many as contain promises of his Presence will and Favour to his people in all conditions of Life Now to sum up all Seeing all evils of this World none excepted shall work for our good seeing they do of themselves contribute towards it by offering to us very considerable opportunities of benefitting our selves seeing the good for which they work is greater than the pain we endure and that the greater the evils are the good will therefore be greater seeing a good man is so disposed as to use those opportunities for his own advantage which they yield seeing he is farther enabled by the Spirit of God so to do finally since we know all this and are as certain of it as the goodness of God as the meritorious Death and Passion of our Saviour as the reasonableness of the thing and as the promise of God can make us then it is plain that in this Divine saying there is nothing wanting to encourage and comfort all those that truly love God and do his Will or to persuade all others to do so too which I proposed to shew at first And now Brethren what remains but that knowing these things we be so happy and so wise as to do accordingly and therefore that we be throughly
indeed to convince a man of that mistake that his form of godliness will supply the want of the real power of it But alas where Truth is professed without the mixture of any Doctrinal Errors of this kind there is still too much room left for this practical Error of holding the truth in unrighteousness For whilst some men are led into sin by Error do not others who are guilty of the same sins hope that they shall be overlooked for the sake of their opposition to those Errors and the professing and maintaining the contrary Truth 'T is true that our Church according to the truth of the Scriptures and the clearest reason that there is for any thing in the world holds forth a necessity of actual reformation in order to God's Pardon and eternal Life and we disclaim all manner of ways to supply the want of effectual repentance and a thorough change of heart and life from Sin to God But my Brethren let us lay one Particular seriously to heart under this General and that is this That our very Profession of this Truth in the natural and proper sense of it That without holiness no man shall see the Lord will not serve our turn without the practice of it our profession of the necessity of an holy life is not that holy life which is necessary And if the unavoidableness of professing some Religion and the desire we have to keep our Sins too works this way upon us as to make us trust in the purity of our Profession we are guilty of one Error as pernicious if we continue in it as if a thousand more were added to it I say if we continue in it for there is this advantage of a true and pure profession of Christianity that whosoever makes it to use the words of our Saviour in a sense something different he is not far from the Kingdom of God there is less to do to recover him to repentance no false Principle being in the way to hinder it he lies open to Exhortation and Persuasion and every serious Instruction and Admonition smites his very Conscience he feels the truth that is delivered to him there is that within him which confesseth it all and will not easily let him be quiet till it hath made him a new man But to proceed 3. In some Persons a dishonourable opinion of God may be the reason of expecting his Rewards without performing the Duties of Purity and Charity I fear there are those in the world who think that God hath appointed the confession of his Name with Prayer and Thansgivings and other holy Offices of Religion that by these things men might give him the satisfaction of hearing the greatness of his Perfections and the excellency of his Works applauded by his Creatures and therefore that these things being performed they have entitled themselves to his thanks and favour But this is in truth to have but a very low and mean opinion of the Divine Majesty and seems to suppose God to be altogether such an one as our selves who perhaps are so vain as to take great delight in our own praises and love to be flattered into a great opinion of our selves If we believe worthily of the Divine Nature we must say That because God is holy and good therefore he will have men to be so and that he expects to be glorified by us to be confessed and adored not that he needeth us or is taken with our commendations of him but because it is infinitely fit and reasonable and equitable that we should thus worship him and because this is a necessary means also of forming our minds and actions into the likeness of what God is and of what he does in the World We are mistaken if we think that our Saviour is beholden to us for keeping up the profession of his Name or that some great Interest of his is served when Religion gets ground upon the World because there will be more and more to speak his Praise and to celebrate his Goodness and his Greatness as if he were like some one of those great men who if they have Flatterers enough and can make others seem to honour them though there be no such matter are very well pleased The Religion of our Saviour was not sent into the world for the ostentation of his Power and Greatness and he plainly told us that he sought not his own honour It is indeed our indispensible duty to honour him before all the World with all expressions of gratitude and humble reverence and we are most inexcusable and wretched Creatures if we do it not But the end of his Religion was to turn us from our iniquities and to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works and so far as this Design takes so far he approves of us otherwise he hath plainly told us what we are to expect from him even that Sentence Depart from me ye that work iniquity I know you not 4. The conceit and expectation of some unpromised mercy of God must necessarily be one ingredient into the presumption oâ— those men that hold the truth in unrighteousness For the Threatnings of God's Word are so undeniably plain that a man of sense who believes the truth as it is in Jesus can have no ease under a guilty Conscience but upon a supposition that God will or may at least abate something of the rigour of his threatning and accept of less perhaps a Death-bed Repentance of less I say than he hath required This seems to be at the bottom of their Confidence of whom our Lord foretold that they should say Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name c. that is to say they had been instrumental to maintain and support his Doctrine in the World and expostulate now with him as if they always had some secret hope this would at last be accepted though there was no promise of it before-hand But to prevent this presumption Our Saviour hath said before-hand Then will I profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquity which plain dealing was very necessary For though it is true that he that threatens punishment doth not delight in taking punishment but intends to prevent the fault yet when God threatens for this end and adds moreover Declaration upon the Threatning That he will not spare if the fault be not prevented 't is an affront to him to presume that he will spare for all that To conclude Let us seriously lay to heart these words of our Saviour which are an answer to the most concerning Question in the World who are they that shall be saved Not every one that saith Lord Lord but he that doth the will of our father which is in heaven He that can say I was by my natural temper and inclination thus and thus but the Religion of Jesus and the Worship of God according to the Gospel hath given me a new heart and a new nature and